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Jazz Age newsboy still delivers

Eight-plus decades later, he's back with a new route, same caring

By Hiroko Sato, hsato@lowellsun.com

Updated:
10/10/2014 10:12:48 AM EDT

(SUN/DAVID H. BROW)

CHELMSFORD -- John Harrington's day starts when the 93-year-old hits the button on his electric scooter to ride down the hall at Summer Place, an independent-living facility on Summer Street, with about 30 copies of The Sun in the front basket.

Harrington knows only an amateur would throw the paper at a door. He, for one, always makes sure to gently fold the paper and insert it behind the doorknob so that whoever opens the door won't have to bend down to pick it up.

Thoughtfulness is in Harrington's nature. The importance of hard work is something he learned back in the 1920s as an 8-year-old paperboy delivering The Sun for 2 cents per copy in Lowell's Highlands neighborhood. The ways people get news may have changed over the years, but the value of community news hasn't, Harrington said.

It gets people talking. It makes them care about each other.

And when delivered right, it puts smiles on the faces of those who find the paper at their doors.

"He is the best paperboy we have ever had," Mary Hanley, a resident at Summer Place, said of Harrington, with whom she spends many afternoons playing tile games.

"I think I'm helping my family out here" by delivering the paper, Harrington said. "It gives me a purpose to get up in the morning."

Life came full circle for Harrington, a Chelmsford resident of 71 years, when he moved to Summer Place in August.

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The manager of the facility asked Harrington if he could deliver The Sun inside the building. Being a paperboy was the first job Harrington ever held while growing on a farm on Stedman Street in Lowell. Al Hebert, Sun district manager, quickly followed up with Harrington and assured him that someone else would step in for him when he is away -- the only concern he had for taking on the responsibility.

Harrington admits being retired isn't his thing. After graduating from Lowell High School, he first worked at the New Market Silk Mill in downtown Lowell and then spent 27 years operating machinery at Fletcher's Quarry in Westford. Delivering the paper lets him do what he does best -- helping people, said Harrington's daughter, Judy Harrington Leary. And The Sun holds some special meaning for Harrington.

"I was born and brought up with it. That was the only way they got the news," Harrington said, looking back on the days when people didn't even listen to the radio often because they didn't have electricity in their homes.

Automobiles were also a luxury. The last horse he owned on the farm would spring at the sound of a fire siren because it thought it was still pulling a pump for the fire department, Harrington said.

Once power-grid systems were built, newspapers lost some of their readers to radio, Harrington said. Then, more people would begin relying on the TV news.

But having a newspaper in their hands still means a lot to the people of his generation. Harrington makes sure to complete his deliveries by 7:15 a.m. He walked down the hall to distribute the paper even when he couldn't use his scooter during a power outage earlier this winter.

If The Sun driver is ever late, Harrington makes calls to solve the problem on his own, said Summer Place Manager Faron Boreham. Harrington is often seen cheerfully greeting his customers, exchanging jokes.

Paper delivery inside the building used to be "hit or miss," Boreham said. Harrington has made sure "they were done correctly on time."

Hebert said Harrington's customer service is "fantastic. Never a complaint." That's because Harrington puts each apartment's number on the newspaper, and places the paper where the resident can reach it.

Hebert said Harrington meets with him once a month to make sure delivery is smooth, and that there are no problems.

Harrington, who lost his wife of 67 years in 2008, has three daughters, eight grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. Adept with tools, he has volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, Leary said.

"He is a wonderful man," Hanley said.

"He is very, very compassionate," Leary said. "He has a lot of feelings for people. And he is very concerned about people even to this day."

For Harrington, a newspaper is a tool to build a sense of community. The declining newspaper readership nationwide concerns him greatly, he said.

"Hopefully, I will see the paper for the rest of my days," Harrington said.

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